By Noel Thorne

Oh, my gaaawd, vampires are real – and they’re spelt without the “e”! What is it with this series and missing letters – first Dracula without the “a” now “vampir”? Does it make the comic… creepier? Or should that be… creepir?

So the origin story of Vlad the Impaler continues in Brothers Dracul #2 as Vlad and Radu battle their first vampir. Think they do alright? This is an extended flashback, so we know they do. Oh, the narrative tension… It would have been nice if we were told anything more about vampirs, who they are, how long they’ve been around, etc. – perhaps that’s information that’s being saved for later, or maybe they’re simply just one-dimensional monsters? The latter would definitely be disappointingly unimaginative.

Mirko Colak draws the vampirs with an animalistic slant, a bit like DC’s Manbat, so they’re a long way from the likes of Lestat or Edward Cullen! Colak’s art reminds me of Bryan Hitch’s, which is a plus or minus depending on how you feel about Hitch, but I’m not particularly taken with it. It’s fine, it’s just not very exciting or that appealing to look at.

Not that Cullen Bunn’s writing is doing much for me either. It’s a readable comic though nothing’s hooked me so far. The Sultan keeping the brothers as political prisoners is a dull storyline, their foray into the vampir’s cave to assist the Sultan’s cowardly son was unexciting and neither brother is especially interesting as a character.

I was much more interested by the opening scene in the first issue where we see Vlad earning his nickname and Radu reeling in horror at the depths of madness his brother has descended. This “20 years earlier” stuff might be necessary to explain how things went from bad to worse but it’s taking a while to get anywhere good.

The closing pages to this issue are puzzling but, rather than entice, all it made me think of was a bargain basement comics version of those crummy Underworld movies.

Cullen Bunn can sometimes write great horror comics, but it looks like this series isn’t one of them. Brothers Dracul #2 is a forgettable bor to read.

Score: 2/5

Brothers Dracul #2
Aftershock Comics